In The Line Of Duty
by AgentDiNozzo13
Summary: It was supposed to just be another rainy sunday for Tony, but trouble seems to follow him where ever he goes. When he finds himself in the middle of a drug store stand-off, will Gibbs save him in time? Or will it be the end of everyone's favorite agent?


**A/N: I've been focusing on the White Collar fandom for a long time now, and I've missed NCIS! So I'm back with a new two-shot, about Tony of course. I owe the plot idea of this story to SparkieBunny, who was kind enough to help me think of an idea! I hope you like it, please excuse any mistakes or discrepancies, it's been awhile! Enjoy!**

Today was supposed to be an ordinary day. Just another average Sunday in which nothing productive happened, because that's what Sundays were meant for. Absolutely nothing. And that is exactly what Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo did for the majority of his Sunday; nothing. It wasn't until 8:02pm that night that his Sunday became anything but normal.

Tony had been sitting in his apartment watching Magnum P.I. contently when his head began to throb. He could sense a migraine in the making. He got off of the couch for the first time in several hours and entered his small bathroom. After several minutes of rifling through his medicine cabinet, he concluded that it was vacant of any aspirin.

"Great, just what I need." Tony muttered as he slipped his jacket on. He grabbed his keys and cell phone off of the coffee table on his way out and locked the door behind him.

When Tony reached the small drug store, he internally cursed for not having driven. The half-mile walk was only worsening his headache, and to put the icing on the cake, it had started to downpour. He ran inside quickly, causing the bell above the door to erupt in a frenzy of chimes, alerting the store's owner of the customer.

"Tony! It's been awhile." The cashier greeted cheerily upon Tony's arrival. He had known Tony for years, being the closest convenience store to his apartment. The cheapest, too.

"Hey, Enzo. Nice weather we're having." Tony replied sarcastically, receiving a hearty laugh from the short Italian cashier.

"What can I do for you Tony?" Enzo asked when the laughter died down.

Tony glanced around the store before answering, noticing that he was one of the only people there. Other than him the only occupants were an older man, a middle-aged guy who was dressed in a way that led Tony to believe he was a doctor, and a mother with her daughter. The little girl looked to be about eight years old and was dressed in a vibrant purple sweatshirt and jeans. The mother held the girl close, obviously uneasy in the run-down store.

"Just came for some aspirin, Enzo. A case of beer wouldn't hurt either, though." Tony answered with a smile.

"That's my boy, Tony." Enzo said, laughing as Tony leaned against the counter in a manner of procrastination. He had no intention of trudging back into the rain anytime soon. He'd much rather converse with the aging Italian.

After several minutes of conversation between the two, a seventh person joined the group in the store. He was somewhat grungy looking with an unshaven face and a faded leather jacket. His jeans were as dark as the leather, and he wore worn-down black work boots on his feet. A navy blue ski cap was pulled down to his eyebrows, casting a shadow over most of his face.

The man gave Tony an uneasy feeling, but he ignored it when the man passed by and began scanning the liquor shelf. Tony looked over at the mother, who was suspiciously eyeing the newcomer. She seemed to be tightening her grip on her daughter's hand, because suddenly the little girl began to try to tug her hand away. Tony almost smiled at the sight. His mother had never exactly been the over-protective type, but it still amused him to see such an obviously-loving mother so concerned for her child.

The darkly-dressed man made his selection, a bottle of cheap vodka, and approached the counter. He made no eye-contact with Tony or Enzo. He simply placed the bottle on the counter and began reaching into his pocket for his wallet. Or at least, Tony _thought_ he was looking for his wallet.

But as it turned out, the man wasn't reaching for his wallet at all, but rather a gun that was concealed at his waist. He whipped it out of his waist band, quickly holding it at arms length so that it pointed directly at Enzo's forehead.

Enzo began to recite prayers in Italian at an alarming speed, holding his hands up in surrender.

Tony's first reaction was to reach for his gun, but as soon as his hand hit nothing but denim he remembered that he wasn't carrying one. His gun was back at his apartment, safely stowed away in the drawer of his nightstand.

Upon noticing the movement of Tony's hand, he whirled the gun to face Tony instead. Tony removed his hand from his waist and put it up slightly in mock-surrender, similar to the way Enzo had.

For the first time since entering the store, the man spoke. "Don't move."

Tony did as he was told, not daring to risk the lives of the others in the store. It was then that he remembered the mother and daughter. He stole a glance over to them, noticing that they were quietly edging towards the door. The little girl's eyes were round with fear. Unfortunately the gun-wielding man caught Tony's look and followed his gaze, noticing the attempt at escape. He quickly ran to the door, twisting the dead-bolt and flipping the sign from "OPEN" to "Sorry, we're closed".

"NO ONE MOVE!" he shouted, waving the gun from one person to another.

The little girl began to cry, burying her head into the fabric covering her mother's stomach.

Tony knew instantly that it was up to him to bring down the intruder. Enzo and the elderly man wouldn't be able to overpower him, the mother and daughter were too overcome with fear and anxiety to try and help, and the "doctor", as Tony now subconsciously referred to him as, seemed to be more concerned with hiding behind a rack of sunglasses than helping with the situation.

So that left Tony; the young Italian playboy who worked for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. It sort of made sense, if you thought about it.

At the moment, there were two racks of potato chips and candy separating Tony and the man. This meant that the man could only see Tony from the shoulders-up. Tony took advantage of this moment and reached slowly into his pocket, careful not to make a move great enough to effect the stillness of his shoulders. He managed to pull out his phone and flip it open, quickly hitting the only speed dial he had programmed; Gibbs'. He counted the seconds that would equal two rings, and ended the call. He did the same thing again two more times before placing the phone back in his pocket. It was a distress signal the team had established years ago. He prayed that Gibbs had his phone with him. The older agent had a tendency to leave it on silent or "drop" it in a cup of bourbon when an ex-wife was calling.

Moments passed like hours as everyone stared at the crazed man with the gun, wondering what he was planning to do. At last he approached the counter for the second time, still pointing the gun at Enzo.

"Give me all the money in the register." He said to Enzo, motioning towards the machine. When Enzo hesitated, the man shouted, "NOW!"

Enzo snapped out of his state of shock and opened the register. He looked around for some sort of bag or box to put it in, and when he saw none he instead began to transfer handfuls of bills from the cash register to the counter top. The pile of crumpled bills and loose coins grew until the register was empty. The man, also unsure of what to put the money in, began shoving handfuls into his pant and jacket pockets with one hand well he held the gun with the other.

"So, what's your name?" Tony asked randomly, much to the thief's surprise.

"What?" he asked, pausing momentarily with several dollar bills clenched in his fist.

"I asked you your name. I'm Tony." Tony said, smiling in spite of the situation.

The thief scoffed and continued to stuff his pockets with cash.

Tony clucked his tongue and said, "Ya know it's rude to ignore people" matter-of-factly.

The man turned the gun to face Tony and said, "You're gonna wish I was ignoring you when I-"

"Leave him alone!" came a small, high-pitched voice from the other side of the store. Tony looked in the direction the voice had come from. It was the little girl. She had stopped crying but tear lines were still evident on her face.

"What? What'd you say you little shit?" the man spat, taking several steps toward her.

"I said leave him alone!" she cried, beginning to cry again.

The man scrunched his eyebrows together in anger and ran over to her, trying to pull her towards him. Her mother held strongly onto her other arm, screaming, "No! Stop it! Don't take my baby!" He soon overpowered her, though, and held the girl in a hostage-position. Her eyes were wider than before, and tears streamed down her face.

The smile faded from Tony's face. "Look, man, you got your money. What else do you want?"

"I want you to shut up!" the man retorted angrily.

"There's not a good chance of that happening. Just ask my coworkers, they'll tell ya." Tony said, holding back a smirk.

The man seethed through clenched teeth, but ignored Tony's remark, choosing instead to take a step closer to him, keeping the gun trained on his head.

"So…" Tony said, wondering how long it had been since he sent the SOS to Gibbs. Usually Gibbs would get here in a nanosecond, but Tony knew it would take longer with Gibbs having to complete a trace on his location first. "Can I call you Joe?"

"What?" the man spat, his eyebrows scrunching together in angry confusion.

"Well you won't tell me your real name, so I was wondering if I could just call you Joe."

"No!" the man screamed, tightening his grip on the young girl, whose face was turning to a light shade of purple. She was trying to pull away his fingers, but the attempt was fruitless. "Don't call me _anything_! Just shut up!"

It was then that Tony noticed the dark car that had pulled up directly outside of the store. It took all he had not to breathe a sigh of relief. Instead he continued to stare-down the man.

…

Gibbs immediately saw the situation, and swore under his breath. How did DiNozzo always get himself into trouble like this? Couldn't he go through one day off without getting kidnapped, beaten, or held at gunpoint?

He went towards the door anyway, trying to be as quiet as possible.

…

Tony's eyes kept switching from one situation to the other, keeping a careful eye on both the man and Gibbs, who was currently trying to pick the lock on the store without making any noise.

When Gibbs finally stood, having successfully unlocked the door of the store, he began to inch it open, paying close attention to both the man and Tony the entire time. He was caught by surprise, however, when the bell above the door suddenly began to ring, alerting the thief of Gibbs' presence. The gun-wielding man whirled to face the noise, aiming the gun straight at Gibbs.

…

What happened next seemed to go by in slow motion. The second the bell began to ring the entire store seemed to go into a frenzy. Tony lunged toward the thief as soon as his back was turned, trying desperately to get the gun away from him without hurting the little girl or Gibbs. As the man and Tony struggled with the gun, Tony attempting to pry it out of his hands and him desperately trying to get a good aim at the agent, Gibbs was able to get the little girl out of harm's way; she had slipped out of the man's grasp when Tony attacked him. Just as Gibbs was pulling out his own gun, he heard a shot ring out throughout the store.

It was that moment when everything seemed to blur. Seconds went by like hours as Gibbs tried to figure out where the shot had come from. When he ran in the direction of the thief and Tony, he expected to see Tony standing over the bleeding body of the grungy man. What he didn't expect to see was Tony, lying on his back on the ground, blood slowly pooling beneath him as his eyes gave Gibbs a blank, lifeless stare. But that is what he saw. He paid no attention when the man rushed past Gibbs and escaped through the front door. He simply stared down at Tony, his senior agent, gasping his last breaths on the floor. Just as the ambulance Enzo had called during the struggle pulled up outside of the store, Tony shifted his head slightly to face Gibbs and said, "I think I screwed up, boss."

**A/N: Ok so this was supposed to be posting back in like July but my life has been SO hectic lately I can't even begin to explain it to you. Words can't describe how sorry I am to my fans and the fans of the stories I Didn't Let You Down and Aftermath. I swear on my life that those stories will get finished, I'm trying as hard as I can, please believe me!**

**If anyone out there is still reading my stories please pretty please review! I miss getting a bunch of Review Alerts in my email! :(**

**Thanks so much!**

**-AgentDiNozzo13**


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